M5 Written Assignment: Research Paper on Childhood Trauma and Loss

Childhood Trauma and Loss: Children who Have Experienced War and Political Conflict
Name
Institution
Brief Summary
Reports of political tensions and conflicts resulting from power struggles are often reported across the globe. Victims of such tensions are mostly children and women who undergo serious levels of trauma. With the ever-increasing political tensions across the globe, over 20 million children and adolescents are raised in war chaos (Herman, 2015). In the past decade, more than 2 million children have been killed, 1 million separated from caregivers, 7 million have been left disabled, and more than 30 million have been left homeless. In a recent report, Punamaki et al. (2015) brought the subject of childhood trauma to the international attention of policymakers and researchers. The report established that children and adolescents who experience war are significantly confronted with the challenge with challenges associated with exploitation, violence, physical harm, loss as well as fear (Herman, 2015). Concerning the importance of addressing the challenges children and adolescents in war-torn regions face, this paper discusses most common effects associated with the trauma on children at varying ages and stages of development and the various factors, which can be utilized to protect children from the negative impact of trauma and assist in building resilience. After providing an extensive discussion of the above elements, the various treatments and interventions approach to addressing these emerging challenges will be discussed.

Concerning the various issues discussed in this paper, it is worth to note that even though children and adolescent in war-torn regions face serious emotional challenges, a collaborative approach among stakeholders will be effective in mitigating the effects of these challenges.
Common Effects of the Trauma on Children at Varying ages and Stages of Development
There exist a broad range of common effects of trauma on children at the various ages as well as stages of development. Both the adolescent and children undergo significant struggles during and after war conflicts in a broad range of ways. Most of these children are caught in crossfires, with more than a half of the casualties in such conflicts.
Inherent Stress
In most cases, these children tend to grow up with the serious and inherent stress of living in such war-torn regions. In fact, most of these children experience serious psychological effects in the later days in life. According to Leavitt and Fox (2014) report, more than 300,000 children across the globe have been forced into violent activities as child soldiers. These child soldiers are used in more than 40 war-torn countries, from the Central African Republic, to Myanmar, and to Sudan (Herman, 2015). Most of these children and adolescents go through both emotional damage and atrocities. Frequently, the child fighters are usually not welcomed home or even get support from their families after the war.
Humanity Hardships
Children and adolescent brought up in war-torn regions constantly face serious human hardship situation. In most cases, children in or from combat go through the greatest humanity hardships from an early age. In a study which looked at the various experience of children exposed to war in Congo and Uganda, Herman (2015) confirmed that by age 14, at least 54 percent of children had been forced to kill a person, which 30 percent had been raped. Also, the study confirmed that an overwhelming 90 percent of these children had seen someone being killed. With regards to such statistics, it is worth to note that children brought up in the war-torn region go through the worst experiences, which are mostly against humanity.
Placed in Isolation
Children and adolescents brought up in the war-torn regions are always placed in isolation from the normal environment. In most cases, these children are placed in isolation because of their war-related trauma (Herman, 2015). Most children from war-torn regions are either orphaned or have lost either of the parents as a result of the effects of the war. Isolation from parents, in most cases, can result in fewer basic resources such as shelter, food, and water. The lack of these essential resources prevent these children from growing in not only a safe but also a healthy environment. Since children orphaned as a result of political conflicts and wars often work to feed themselves, they always miss an opportunity to have a playful childhood and access to education.
Essentially, children and adolescent who have grown in war-torn region have significantly should very high levels of trauma (Herman, 2015). Despite the fact that children from war-torn regions tent to face high levels of trauma, humanitarian aid agencies ten to place their focus more on the physical needed instead of the psychological needs. In most cases, NGOs such as the International Red Cross deliver only vaccinations and food, ignoring the emotional damage that these children have gone through as a result of the conflicts. Concerning this view, there is the need to note that the assistance of food and vaccination only tend to address the physical needs and leave out the psychological ones.
Factors which Can Protect Children from Negative Impact of Trauma and Assist in Building Resilience
There is a broad range of factors that can be considered when it comes to protecting children from war-torn regions from the adverse impacts associated with trauma. The relevance of such initiatives is that they will play an important role in building resilience after the war. Child resiliency is regarded as the ability to recover from the various experiences of trauma and developing the most appropriate skills that could be effective in overcoming future challenges (Punamaki et al., 2015). In most cases, when addressing adversities after a war, most children tend to draw their strengths, which are divided into the interpersonal, internal, as well as external resources (Jennings & Niemi, 2015). Both the internally displaced children and refugee children can be helped in developing resources by taking part in relevant participation in issues that do not only affect them but also affect their families as well as their immediate communities. Held by the United Nations Convention on Child’s Rights, meaningful participation considers child’s active involvement as well as voices to be key in the realization of fundamental rights. As noted by Herman (2015), children’s participation should be improved through the six-stem child-to-child initiative.
The relevance of this approach is that children will have an opportunity to analyze the various issues, which affect their immediate community and create an effective age-relevant initiative in responding to both the existing as well as the emerging challenges within their immediate community (Williams, 2016). Implemented in more than 70 countries, the child-to-child initiative has increasingly continued to help children who live in different challenging situations in refugee camps as well as those who are internally displaced (Williams, 2016). Considered to be a cost-effective and innovative approach to early education, the child-to-child initiative is effective in helping children in improving child-to-child interactions. Through this approach, the younger children can develop the various competencies of early learning while they prepare to join the school. Also, the child-to-child approach is effective in addressing the needs of the older children as it helps them in building both self-esteem and confidence. When self-esteem and confidence of children from the war-torn region are restored, there are very high chances that trauma related to the wars is significantly mitigated. However, there is the need to note that for these approaches to effectively work, the governments in these war-torn regions must be ready to work together with the affected communities. About the various issues discussed in this section, the effectiveness of this approach is that of help in the promotion of meaningful child involvement in school-readiness, health, disaster-preparedness, climate change, HIV/AIDS as well as inclusive education among another important factor, which affect children from war-torn counties.
Treatments and Interventions
Concerning the importance of addressing the various challenges that children from war-torn region face, there are some treatment and interventions that can be utilized to ensure that these children experience positive growth (Punamaki et al., 2015). This section provides a discussion on the curative as well as a developmental approach as the most effective forms of treatment and interventions when it comes to dealing with challenges associated with the children who have been exposed to political conflicts and wars.
Curative Approach
In most cases, the curative approach is used in dealing with challenges associated with the highest levels of trauma. Hence, the therapeutic approaches emphasize the effects as well as symptoms of the disproportionate stressful situations that face children exposed to wars (Punamaki et al., 2015). The responsive from a curative angle, in most cases, is based on psychotherapeutic approaches, which have a close relationship with the various western mental health concepts, which may include the post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD (Williams, 2016). The relevance of such approaches is that they tend to single out small and individual children groups, thus emphasizing the confrontations associated with experiences, which are aimed at helping these children to deal with social as well as mental disorders that come as a result of the war. In general terms, the approach revolves around the involvement of specialists in mental health. Basing on the fact that the curative programs emphasize mental health, they comprise of curative therapy and small-group counseling.
Developmental Approach
Addressing the needs of these children, the developmental approach plays a very critical intervention and intervention role. This kind of approach considers people as part and parcel of the wider social structure as well as the fabric of relationships (Williams, 2016). Often, the development of a child is determined by the various relationships, which exists a given family and the environment at large. Concerning this view, there exists a constant play as well as an interchange children’s psychological development and the immediate social environment (Punamaki et al., 2015). Unlike the curative approach, the developmental approach does not focus on the disorders and symptoms associated with after war experiences. Instead, the developmental approach emphasizes identifying the various ways these children can cope with multiple threats associated with such trauma. Resource and the protective factors serve as the most effective developmental approaches to dealing with these challenges.
References
Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence–from domestic abuse to political terror. Hachette UK.
Jennings, M. K., & Niemi, R. G. (2015). Political character of Adolescence: The Influence of Families and schools. Princeton University Press.
Leavitt, L. A., & Fox, N. A. (Eds.). (2014). The psychological effects of war and violence on children. Psychology Press.
Punamaki, R. L., Palosaari, E., Diab, M., Peltonen, K., & Qouta, S. R. (2015). Trajectories of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) after major war among Palestinian children: Trauma, family-and child-related predictors. Journal of affective disorders, 172, 133-140.
Williams, P. D. (2016). War and conflict in Africa. John Wiley & Sons.